Sheriff: Man was shot as he tried to run over deputy

A man was shot Thursday night after a chase that ended on Cleveland Road in Anderson.

Crime-scene tape is stretched across a road where a man was shot by an Anderson County sheriff's deputy. The shooting happened Thursday after a chase.

ANDERSON - An Upstate man was shot by an Anderson County deputy Thursday night after he attempted to run over another officer, Sheriff John Skipper said.

Ricky "Pighead" Clark was shot in the shoulder and was also injured in the leg after a car chase that ended on Cleveland Road in Anderson, Skipper said.

The sheriff said two deputies were patrolling the neighborhood shortly after 6 p.m. when they attempted to stop a Ford F-150 pickup that they believed to be stolen. Skipper said that when the deputies turned on their blue lights, the driver, Clark, sped away.

The deputies' names were not disclosed.

The deputies pursued the truck on Richland Creek Road and on Cleveland Drive before Clark made it to nearby Cleveland Road. Skipper said Clark got the pickup stuck near a gravel road off Cleveland Road.

"Both deputies went over to him and told him to get out of the truck," Skipper said. "He was kind of hemmed in, but he got unstuck and drove toward one of the deputies and was trying to hit him with the truck. At that point, the other deputy fired a shot. I don't know how many shots."

Because the shooting involves a sheriff's deputy, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has been called in to investigate.

Clark, who is in his early 50s, was taken to AnMed Health Medical Center. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening ones. The two deputies were not hurt, Skipper said.

Skipper said both deputies are not scheduled to work again until Monday. He said that between now and Monday, he will consult with investigators to decide whether the deputies can return to work that day or if they should be placed on paid leave while the investigation continues.

More than a dozen blue lights flashed from sheriff's cars that lined the two-laned Cleveland Road on Thursday night. Yellow crime-scene taped blocked most of the road, allowing drivers just enough room to turn around before they reached the wooded area where the chase ended.

Clark, known to investigators as Pighead, has a lengthy criminal history.

In 2005, while he was in custody in Union County, Clark walked away from an inmate work site near the courthouse there. He was on the run in South Carolina for at least three days before he walked out of the woods near the Abbeville County line and surrendered at the home of a police lieutenant.

Several years before that, officers had a three-hour manhunt for Clark, pursuing him in the woods near Starr and Iva. When he was caught, he was charged with robbery.

Skipper said no new charges had been filed against Clark as of late Thursday night.